Trump Criticizes Devastated Puerto Rico: “They Want Everything Done for Them”

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
Just because Puerto Rico is still grappling with the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria, which includes millions of U.S. citizens struggling to survive without electricity or potable water, doesn’t mean the president won’t lash out if his feelings are hurt. And that’s exactly what the commander in chief did early Saturday morning, hours after the mayor of the island’s capital city, San Juan demanded more help from the federal government.
“We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told reporters on Friday. “I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us, to save us from dying.” She added that the inefficiency in the relief efforts is “killing us.”
San Juan mayor on Puerto Rico relief efforts: "I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell." pic.twitter.com/QBEWM8x8Ez
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 29, 2017
For Trump, the mayor’s plea for help to deal with a hurricane that undid “decades of economic progress … in 12 hours” was all about politics. What kind of politics? Well, Democrats told the mayor of the devastated city to criticize Trump, according to the president. Yulín Cruz had been “very complimentary only a few days ago” but has now “been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” the president wrote in an early morning tweet Saturday. The commander in chief went on to write that the San Juan mayor "and others" had shown “poor leadership ability” because she was “not able to get their workers to help.” Rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting things done, the island’s leaders “want everything to be done for them.”
The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
Fake News CNN and NBC are going out of their way to disparage our great First Responders as a way to "get Trump." Not fair to FR or effort!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
Trump also praised the work of the first responders and harshly criticized the “Fake News Networks” that are “working overtime” to demoralize first responders and soldiers.
The Fake News Networks are working overtime in Puerto Rico doing their best to take the spirit away from our soldiers and first R's. Shame!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
This spat with the San Juan mayor won’t be preventing the president from traveling to Puerto Rico with First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday to survey the damage.
I will be going to Puerto Rico on Tuesday with Melania. Will hopefully be able to stop at the U.S. Virgin Islands (people working hard).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017